The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling on Russia to release “without further delay and unconditionally all illegally and arbitrarily detained Ukrainian citizens, both in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine”.
Further, Members of European Parliament require Russian authorities to provide for their safe return, including Crimean Tatars, the recently detained Red Square peaceful demonstrators of July 10, Ukrainian citizens detained on politically motivated charges and the 24 crew members of the Ukrainian naval vessels who were seized near the Kerch Strait by Russian military forces on November 25 last year.
The resolution also demands that Russia publishes a full list of prisoners held in occupied Ukrainian territories in Donbas and Luhansk and to facilitate their contact with families and lawyers.
The European Parliament strongly condemned Russia’s continued violations of fundamental principles and norms of international law, particularly its refusal to comply with the decisions of international tribunals and courts.
“European Parliament urges the Russian Federation to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on the violation of the human rights of persons detained in the Crimean peninsula and in the Russian Federation,” the resolution reads in part.
The session of the European Parliament was attended by a delegation of Ukraine, which included members of the government led by President Petro Poroshenko.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine had protested the decision of the Moscow court to extend the unlawful detentions of the 24 Ukrainian servicemen, who were seized by the Russian Federation in the Black Sea. The detentions were extended through October 24, 2019.
“Russia’s detention of Ukraine’s servicemen, and the three naval vessels that carried them, constitutes a serious and ongoing violation of the sovereign immunity enjoyed by both the vessels and the servicemen under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and general international law,” the ministry said in a statement.
“As recognized in the 25 May Order of the ITLOS, “the continued deprivation of liberty and freedom of Ukraine’s servicemen” interferes with Ukraine’s sovereignty and its international legal rights, and also raises urgent humanitarian concerns.”
